Once you have developed a focused topic, you can begin to think about your thesis statement, the main point or purpose of your paper. If you do not craft a strong thesis, your paper will likely be little more than random, disorganized observations about the text. Your thesis statement tells your reader where you are going and how you are going to get there.To craft a good thesis, you must keep a number of things in mind. First, as the title of this subsection indicates, your paper's thesis should be a statement, an assertion about the text that you want to prove or validate. Beginning writers often formulate a question that they attempt to use as a thesis. For example, a writer exploring the character Shylock in The Merchant of Venice might ask, Although the Venetian Christians tell us that Shylock is a villain, does Shakespeare himself appear to agree? While a question like this is a good strategy to use in the invention process to help narrow your topic and find your thesis, it cannot serve as the thesis statement because it does not tell your reader what you want to assert about Shylock. You might shape this question into a thesis by instead proposing an answer to that question: Although the Venetian Christians tell us that Shylock is a villain, there is enough evidence in the play to suggest that Shakespeare has a much more complex, even sympathetic view of his character. We can see this not only in Shylock's statements of vulnerability and weakness but also in the dubious, hypocritical conduct of the play's Christians. Notice that this thesis provides an initial plan or structure for the rest of the paper—it tells the reader "I will establish how the Venetian community perceives Shylock, then move into a discussion of scenes where Shylock's words reveal him to be a victim in his own right, and then finally discuss the portrait of the apparently 'good' Christians of Venice who are really no better than Shylock." Notice, too, that the thesis statement does not necessarily have to fit into one sentence.Second, remember that a good thesis makes an assertion that you need to support. In other words, a good thesis does not state the obvious. If you tried to formulate a thesis about Macbeth by simply saying, Macbeth is a play in part about witchcraft, you have done nothing but state the obvious. This example gives the reader merely a theme, and a thesis is much more than a theme or subject. It is what you have to say about your theme. In other words, while your essay certainly can be about witchcraft in Macbeth, it must make a precise point about witchcraft. And the theme of witchcraft in Macbeth is a very rich one, one that might stimulate many good thesis statements. For example: The witches in Macbeth are part of a series of female threats to Macbeth's masculine authority. Indeed, Shakespeare emphasizes symbolic connections between the weird sisters and Lady Macbeth, banding them together to form a vision of unnaturally powerful women.As the comparison with the road map also suggests, your thesis should appear near the beginning of the paper. In relatively short papers (three to six pages) the thesis almost always appears in the first paragraph. Some writers fall into the trap of saving their thesis for the end, trying to provide a surprise or a big moment of revelation, as if to say, "TA-DA! I've just proved that Lady Macbeth is a witch, and you didn't even see it coming!" While surprise endings may be thrilling in a murder mystery novel, they are utterly self-destructive in an academic essay. Placing a thesis at the end of an essay can seriously mar its effectiveness. If you fail to define your essay's point and purpose clearly at the beginning, your reader will find it difficult to assess the clarity of your argument and understand the points you are making. When your argument comes as a surprise at the end, you force your reader to reread your essay in order to assess its logic and effectiveness.Finally, you should avoid using the first person ("I") as you present your thesis. Though it is not strictly wrong to write in the first person, it is difficult to do so gracefully. While writing in the first person, beginning writers often fall into the trap of writing self-reflexive prose (writing about their paper in their paper). Often this leads to the most dreaded of opening lines: "In this paper I am going to discuss…." Not only does this self-reflexive voice make for very awkward prose, it frequently allows writers to boldly announce a topic while completely avoiding a thesis statement.Sample Thesis Statements1. While it might appear that Honoria, the young heroine of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited," would be better off remaining with her aunt's family, the girl would actually be better off with her father, whose losses and hardships have made him a more open, positive, and compassionate person.2. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the young girl Pearl constantly challenges the Puritans' worldview through her play, her language, and her social interaction.3. John Steinbeck’s story “The Chrysanthemums” explores the effects of isolation and frustration on one woman, Elisa Allen, who mistakes the interest of a passing tinker for a true connection. The descriptions of her work, her personal life, and even her clothing show the impact of her feelings of isolation, frustration, and ultimate disappointment.4. After more than 20 years of being regarded by townspeople as a fool, attorney David Wilson, the protagonist of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, is finally recognized as an exceptional man. However, a careful appraisal of his life shows that he really has lived as a fool.5. In Moby-Dick, Ishmael's version of the Narcissus myth is the key to understanding the different fates of Ishmael and Ahab. Like Narcissus, Ahab pursues his own reflection so insistently that it leads to his death. Ishmael, on the other hand, is willing to see beyond the self and recognize the soul's dependence on others.6. In Hemingway’s story "Big Two-Hearted River," Nick seeks out nature not to experience harmony and peace, as many critics have suggested, but rather to experience a greater feeling of control than he has found in the world of men.7. Eliza Brandon and Eliza Williams, though they occupy little narrative space in Sense and Sensibility, loom large as cautionary tales for the passionate Marianne Dashwood. They represent the possibility of fundamentally good natures being destroyed by unscrupulous men.8. In "Starting from Paumanok" Whitman uses formal innovations to create a new and specifically American poetry that reflects the conditions of American life in his time.9. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, the citizens are deprived of an accurate sense of perspective and a faith in their own memories, and the result is that they have no fixed point from which to evaluate their rulers and the choices they are making.10. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Lindo, Jing-mei, and Rose are all able to discover, through soul-searching prompted by feelings of despair, a sense of an authentic, autonomous self. This achievement enables them to find the strength to move forward through the next phases of their lives.
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